TAG Mystery Lesson Plan

Title: Find Cecil!

Subject: Reading ELA/Science
Grade Level: 5th
Duration: Two 45 minute blocks
Type of Lesson: Mystery
Standards and Elements:
RI.5.1 Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing
inferences.
W.5.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research
Advanced Research Skills (ARS) Element 3. The student uses concepts within and across disciplines to
develop valid hypotheses, thesis statements, or alternative interpretations of data
Creative Problem Solving (CPS) Element 3. The student incorporates brainstorming and other ideagenerating techniques (synectics, SCAMPER, etc.) to solve problems or create new products
CPS Element 8. The student tolerates ambiguity when solving problems
Higher Order Critical Thinking Skills (HO/CTS) Element 5. The student predicts probable consequences
of decisions
Summary: Students will analyze the article Mystery of the Missing Giant Tortoise, along with additional
clues, to create and support a hypothesis using explicit information from their resources.
Enduring Understanding: At the end of this lesson, the student will understand how to cite explicit
information from a nonfiction text to infer meaning and create a hypothesis.
Essential Question: How can I use evidence to support my hypothesis?
Evidence of Learning:
What the student should know:
Textual evidence/text support
Inference
Prediction
Explicitly stated information
What the students should be able to do:
Good readers use examples, details, and quotes from the text to support their inferences
Good readers use textual evidence, connections to their own lives and their background knowledge to make
inferences and draw conclusions about what they read
Suggested Vocabulary:
Enclosure, buffet, compound, burrow, cavern, scoots
Procedure:
Step 1: Show the video clip of a brief description of a giant tortoise (1min 30 sec) from National Geographic
website http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/ngexpeditions/giant-tortoises

Step 2: As a whole group, read the article Mystery of the Missing Giant Tortoise.
Step 3: Put class into groups of 4 and hand students materials: chart paper, clue strips in envelopes, glue stick,
markers, copy of the article
Step 4: Students will categorize the clues into groups, give the categories names, and glue them onto the chart
paper.
Step 5: Each group will create a hypothesis of what they think happened to Cecil
Step 6: All charts will be hung around the room; groups will conduct a museum walk in which they read other
groups posters and think how they are similar/different to their own ideas
Step 7: Class discussion of observations
Step 8: Provide the class with the rest of the article, Solution
Assessment:
Informal Observing, taking photos of charts, question/answer sessions
Formal Individual students will blog what he/she believes happened to Cecil citing from the resources
Technology integration: Video clip from National Geographic; projector/smart board; internet access;
kidblog.org; student devices
Differentiation: For the more advanced students, provide the students with fewer clues (take out the 5 clues
that are starred about diet and predators). Also, have them use context clues to define the suggested
vocabulary words to help with the meaning of the story. For the lower level students provide students with the
definitions of the suggested vocabulary words and provide them with a map of the Montagnas property. For the
ELL students, provide them with a map as well as the ELL version of the clues.
Resources/Materials
Article, They Mystery of the Missing Giant Tortoise
National Geographic website video Worlds Biggest Tortoise
Clue documents
Envelopes
Scissors
Projector/smart board
Chart/poster paper
Markers
Glue
Student devices w/internet access for kidblog.org

Mystery of the Missing Giant Tortoise

DAYTONA BEACH Nicholas Montagna was flummoxed.

One of his two giant tortoises went missing Sunday, October 21, 2014, leaving Montagna, his family, neighbors
and others in the community searching for answers, and for Cecil.
Cecil and Frick have lived in an enclosure at his historic home off Ridgewood Avenue since he moved in four
years ago.
Its a neighborhood attraction, said Montagna. Nearby residents of a senior living center seem to get great joy
from being wheeled up to the wrought-iron fence behind his home to see the large tortoises, he said.
Montagna has hand fed both tortoises since they were small and still feeds the tortoises, which he estimates
weigh over 100 pounds each, at lunchtime every day.
We see them all the time. They never miss a feeding, he said. But at noon Sunday, only one tortoise appeared
for the lunch buffet.
Montagna was worried. He searched around the enclosure for signs the tortoise could have escaped. His cousin,
Elizabeth Cooper, who also lives in the large family compound, went even further.
She crawled into the expansive burrow that she said extends for many feet under a paved parking area.
I went back there with a flashlight and looked everywhere, Cooper said. They have three rooms, one large
one and two small ones.
Two bedrooms and a large living room, joked Montagna.
Cooper said she searched the caverns to look for signs of burrowing even further into the dirt caverns.
Still no sign of the tortoise.

http://www.news-journalonline.com
By Dinah Voyles Pulver

Solution:
But on Monday, just as a Daytona Beach police officer arrived to investigate, Montagna was shocked to find
both tortoises in the pen together again.
It was not here, Montagna exclaimed. We had eight people searching for it.
Theres no way this tortoise could have been here yesterday without someone seeing it, he said.
Montagna suspects it was either a prank, or that whoever took the tortoise got nervous after he made it widely
known Sunday that he was furious over the tortoises disappearance.
I made a big stink yesterday, he explained.
Montagna bought the tortoises in local pet shops. According to several online guides to caring for the giant
tortoises, the fully grown tortoises can weigh more than 200 pounds and live between 50 and 150 years.
This wasnt the first time one of Montagnas tortoises went missing. He bought one 13 years ago and two more
10 years ago. About five years ago, while he lived in South Daytona, a deliveryman left a gate open and one
tortoise, Frack, escaped and was never seen again.
This time, Montagna was just glad for a happy ending.

CLUES
Tortoises such as Cecil have a top speed of around 0.3mph - around ten times slower
than the average human.

*Fifteen feet away from his enclosure, there is a stream.

*The family has four dogs, three cats, chickens, ducks, horses and lambs on their land.

The giant dome-shaped tortoise has the longest lifespan of all vertebrates, 100-150
years.

*Tortoises are herbivores. They eat grasses, leaves of shrubs and ferns.

*Some predators of young tortoises are wild dogs, cats, rats, and pigs. Humans are
predators to adult tortoises.

*Scoots were found two days after the disappearance of Cecil 1 mile south of the
Montagnas property.

The Montagnas had tortoises in the past. About five years ago a deliveryman left a gate
open and one tortoise, Frack, escaped and was never seen again.

They bought Cecil from a pet shop 13 years ago.

Giant tortoises have been known to weigh up to 475 pounds.

ELL CLUES
Cecil can go 0.3 miles in one hour

There is a stream

15 feet away

The family has 4 dogs, 3 cats, chickens, ducks, and horses

Tortoises can live to 100-150 years old!

Tortoises eat grasses and plants

Dogs, cats, rats, pigs and people can hurt tortoises

Part of a tortoise shell

The family bought

was found 1 mile south on Tuesday

Cecil from a Pet Shop

A tortoise can weigh 475 pounds (very, very heavy!)

13 years before

The Montagna Property Map

Pavement
parking area

Enclosure

Stream